Route 195 commission decides to name all developers who submit proposals

PROVIDENCE — The Route 195 Redevelopment District Commission now says it will name all developers who submitted proposals to build on the former highway land — once a letter of intent is signed with a...

PROVIDENCE — The Route 195 Redevelopment District Commission now says it will name all developers who submitted proposals to build on the former highway land — once a letter of intent is signed with a particular developer for any one of 17 land parcels available for sale.

The commission announced its new decision with an emailed statement Monday afternoon, just days after its May 1 deadline for the first round of proposals. Spokeswoman Dyana Koelsch could not say when the decision was made, but she said she learned from Executive Director Jan A. Brodie about the change Monday morning.

Previously, the commission had voted unanimously to name only the developers with whom they’ve signed letters of intent and not to name any other interested parties.

The notion that all other proposed developers would remain confidential — so the public does not know who else wanted the land once the commission agrees to negotiate with another developer — is more secretive than the policies of other state agencies, The Providence Journal reported in the days after that vote.

The State Properties Committee and the Department of Environmental Management withhold bidding details while seeking buyers for state land, but no state agency reached by The Journal has set policies to keep secret the names of losing bidders once a deal is struck to sell land.

Koelsch told The Journal that the decision to change the policy was reached for a number of reasons — “the ongoing sensitivity” of the commission to be as transparent as possible; Brodie’s decision that releasing the names would not jeopardize developers’ interest to rework proposals and resubmit ideas in a future development round, which was an initial concern; and “what are other state agencies doing, as you pointed out in one of your articles.”

Asked whether other state agencies or Governor Chafee asked the commission to be more open about who bid for the land, Koelsch said no.

She did not mention a letter from Mayor Angel Taveras that expressed his disappointment with the commission’s policy, which was sent via email on Friday and also hand-delivered that day to the commission. Taveras’ spokesman David Ortiz sent The Providence Journal Taveras’ letter, addressed to 195 Chairman Colin P. Kane, after the newspaper published the commission’s change of policy on Monday.

“For years, the 195 land has been talked about as an important part of economic development in Rhode Island,” Taveras wrote. “While I understand the importance of keeping financial information confidential in order to maintain leverage in bargaining, and to obtain the best deals possible for our state, this level of confidentiality may be viewed by many as not only excessive but unnecessarily secretive.”

Taveras wrote that he was concerned that “not erring on the side of transparency by releasing the names of all bidders leaves the commission open to unnecessary scrutiny and potential allegations of conflict of interest.”

“Keeping citizens in the dark as the commission moves through the process is misguided,” he wrote, urging that the commission at least follow the example of other state agencies.

Koelsch did not immediately reply to another call seeking comment about that letter.

The commission had voted not to say anything about how many proposals come in until the next meeting, May 19.

Also Monday, Chafee weighed in on the commission’s policy change.

“I commend the 195 Commission for making decisions with the goal of realizing the maximum potential of this valuable real estate,” the governor said in a statement.

A letter of intent, the trigger for when developers will now be named, is not a binding document, the commission’s legal counsel, Charles F. Rogers, said the night the commission voted on its confidentiality policy. Once the panel signs a letter of intent, it will negotiate exclusively with that developer, with the hopes of signing a purchase-and-sale agreement for the developer to buy the land.